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The Environment Socialist Web Web site obtained the adhering to letter from a nurse at the Providence St. Vincent Clinical Centre outside the house of Portland, Oregon. The hospital’s 1,600 nurses have been doing work with out a contract for six months from calls for by administration to acknowledge lower pay back, continuing staffing shortages, a lack of hazard pay and insultingly low advantages.
The Oregon Nurses Association (ONA) has labored overtime in an attempt to pressure through a sellout deal. The union declared a tentative settlement on June 4 that accepts the basic calls for of the corporation, together with wage will increase reduce than inflation, no retroactive fork out, minimal to no added compensated time off, and lowered added benefits. The tentative agreement brought to nurses by the ONA also does not tackle the hospital’s staffing disaster.
The letter expresses the outrage of nurses at both equally administration and the union for presenting the sellout arrangement to the membership. It also can make distinct that the only genuine way forward is via the formation of a Providence Nurses Rank-and-File Committee to elaborate calls for for a strike, these kinds of as steep wage raises, mandated published specifications for protected staffing ratios, enhancements to office situations these as assured breaks, suitable compensated time off and retroactive pay out.
We invite other nurses at Providence St. Vincent and throughout the region to generate to us about the ailments they confront as a final result of the ongoing social crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic.
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The Providence St. Vincent tentative arrangement is horrible. In 20 decades of contracts at St. Vincent, retroactive shell out has normally been involved in the contract. It was not bundled in the tentative settlement. Rather, they supplied a measly bonus that will be greatly taxed and then divided it up into two elements in hopes that the nurses won’t all get the bonus and instantly give up, really should this poor agreement be ratified.
Soon after over a year of virtue signaling about range and equity and how it was so significant to Providence that they finally acknowledge Martin Luther King Day as an official holiday getaway, it’s not even listed in the tentative arrangement as an official regarded holiday break (Write-up VI, part A). MLK Day is a footnote stating that if you work that day, you get paid out time and a half, but if that comes about to be your typical day off, you never get the accompanying use of a holiday break to utilize 30 days just before or immediately after the vacation. It’s nearly like Providence doesn’t actually consider it a serious holiday getaway.
In Post XIV–Professional Development, section D, the union fought to get nurses cash for continuing training applications. The tentative settlement now demonstrates the addition that we will only be reimbursed funds “in accordance with organizational expectations for business travel.” These organizational expectations for business enterprise vacation are protected in Policy Stat ID #8684883, and are meant for executive company journey on behalf of Providence. They involve specifications for use of a unique vacation web-site and software for and use of the Providence American Express card for all expenditures.
Not a one workers nurse has ever been questioned to utilize this coverage in advance of Main Nursing Officer Tina Mammone demanded it though going via contract negotiations at the close of past 12 months. The language in this segment now expressly forbids acquiring reimbursement for breakfast, lunch or dinner for any remote class operate finished since we need to have food at property and ought to not have a require to order out. Providence actually just desires to pinch pennies and limit us on how much reimbursement we can acquire so that they can hold creating funds.
There is no language in the deal that contains teaching time for all nurses on how to observe this company vacation policy. Providence will not agree to improve the accrual charges for Paid out Time Off/Trip time. They want to pawn off a single PTO/Holiday vacation dump of 20 hrs as fantastic more than enough when Oregon Health and fitness & Science College (OHSU) and Kaiser Permanente offer larger accrual costs. The wage will increase proposed would however depart lots of nurses beneath prices of OHSU and Kaiser contracts.
Providence nonetheless doesn’t acknowledge or pay an elevated wage for people registered nurses who have a bachelor’s diploma. OHSU pays individuals with increased levels far more for every hour, and Legacy Health presents a yr-end bonus for individuals with bigger degrees dependent on how many hours they labored during the year. The tentative agreement does not address health and fitness care prices, decreased deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums. In simple fact, the tentative settlement exclusively states that Providence can elevate our health coverage premiums by about 7 p.c in 2023 and by 8 percent in 2024.
Overall, I and quite a few of my colleagues will be voting no on June 20th.
Are you a overall health treatment worker with a tale to tell? Make your voice heard! All submissions will be held anonymous.
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